Can’t you read the signs

Stick figures on a wall are rarely noticed, but when a student is searching for relief, those little figures become beautiful sights. Now they will look better than ever.

Across the inside of campus, there are newly placed green signs for everything from the bathrooms and elevators to how to get to the Gunther Trades building. This is part of a new setup from the marketing department to help people new to the campus get around.

Originally the plan was to just replace the exterior signs which were put in place from the Winter Olympics in 2002. A large number of the interior signs are older than that and the plan was adapted to a complete replacement of all the signage on campus.

The department that put all of this together used one term as the focus of the new signage: wayfinding. It was the thought behind everything from the vocabulary, the visual design and the overall campus experience.

Corbin Design, a company from Michigan that was hired to help with the signs, initiated the term of wayfinding. They use the tag line, “People get lost. We fix that.”

“We are trying to get people where they need to go,” said Mike Maughan, the Director of University Events. “The last thing we want is for people to get frustrated when walking around.”

The signs were built for pedestrian traffic, especially for those new to the campus. This means either new students, parents or just the public.

“It was done for first-time users,” Maughan said.

These signs have more information on them compared to the signs they replaced, if any were there at all. They were produced that way to save space and reduce clutter.

The new signs are a brighter green than the deep green that is on the logo or the basketball jerseys, but it is a color that is in the school’s color pallet. Maughan said that the colors used were chosen so that they might not become dated as the signs are expected to be around for a long time.

The signs that went up on the interior over the semester break is just one part of the whole plan. New exterior signs will begin to be put up in April and the new whole look should be up by the fall semester.

There will be signs for the different buildings as well as with the parking. The exterior building signs will blend with the architectural design that is already in place.

Most of the exterior signs will point out what the building name is with different materials than the bronze currently used. They will all be a new style that will be more appealing to students, according to Maughan.

The parking signs will be easier to read in the dark and help people know where they are late in the night. They will also help students with more than just where they are.

“Parking will have updated illuminated signs to show full lots and say, ‘Go to Lot L’,” Maughan said.

The funding for the project came from the Board of Trustees with their approval.

Along with the ease that the project is set up to provide, the signs are also about the overall look of the school, as well as branding the name of UVU.

“We want people to know they are on campus, that they are at UVU,” Maughan said.

The idea around the new signs has been around for quite a while, as far back as former President William Sederberg.